商务英语术语的汉译研究

论文总字数：28049字

摘 要

随着经济全球化的发展和改革开放的潮流，商务英语翻译在国际经济交往中的重要性越发明显。为了避免信息的流失，进而可能影响到国际经济交往，造成利益的损失，错失开拓国际市场的良机，商务英语术语作为翻译中最基本的元素，十分值得探讨。

作者通过大量的举例，阐述并证实相关观点，着重介绍了商务英语翻译的标准以及方法。希望通过本文可以帮助译者实施操作，同时，让读者简要了解，扩展知识范围。本文由四章构成。第一章介绍了商务英语的概况。第二章分析了商务英语术语的概念和特点，并着重介绍了商务英语术语翻译的标准。第三章通过举例，从五个方面简要介绍了商务英语术语的翻译方法。第四章做了简要总结。

关键词：商务英语；术语；翻译方法；翻译标准

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments i

English Abstract ii

Chinese Abstract iii

Table of Contents iv

Chapter One Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 The Research Objective 1

Chapter Two Literature Review 2

2.1 Research at home and abroad 2

2.2 Characteristics of business English terms 3

2.2.1 Specialty 3

2.2.2 Conciseness 4

2.2.3 Polysemy 4

2.2.4 Normalization 5

2.3 Criteria for E-C Business Terms Translation 6

2.3.1 Veracity 6

2.3.2 Uniformity 8

2.3.3 Readability 8

2.4 Concept 9

Chapter Three Approaches to E-C Translation of Business Terms 9

4.1 Addition 10

4.2 Omission 10

4.3 Repetition 11

4.4 Conversion 11

Chapter Four Conclusion 13

References 14

Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Research Background

In the 21^st century, with the advent of economy era, global economic integration and trade freedom are becoming increasingly accelerated, fierce competition has been going on within the whole global economic market. Under such a background, if trade parties who use different languages can achieve decent translation in bilateral commercial negotiation, we would regard it as an ideal concept in favor of both sides. However, among many kinds of international business activities, there are still various inappropriate translations. Business English translations have special translation criteria. If translators regard them as normal literary works, it would be hard to avoid loss of significant information. In addition, many English terms are polysemous, so it is a challenge for translators who have no business knowledge to tell proper meanings from the context. Thus, researching the methods to complete better translation could help.

1.2 The Research Objective

Actually when we Chinese whose mother language is not English negotiate with businessmen from English-speaking countries, translation of business actions plays a very significant role in these fields (Wang Qi 2008). In other words, when we demand to do transactions with each other, as a necessary and indispensable tool, translation of business English could be used well by us to make the final deals successfully and smoothly (Liu Yanmei 2012). But at the same time, the characteristics of business English translation require us to be professional; hence, any subtle errors, which could influence original presentations, would result in some misunderstanding; worse still, it could not spread oral former authors’ intention completely. All in all, business English translation affects the achievements of bilateral trade negotiation in a direct way. Besides, as fundamental element, business English terms are so important that are worth research.

Therefore, this thesis sums up some methods of how to translate business English terms into Chinese. What is more, through many examples, it also raise up suggestions which could improve the translation in the hope of help readers who confront some translation troubles.

Chapter Two Literature Review

Business English terms represent a kind of English phrases especially related to international commerce. They transmit business actions by brief words. And they have settled standards, principles and special aims widely accepted by business circles. Business English terms are the skill and language needed for typical business communication, such as negotiations, meetings, socializing, report writing, presentations, small talks, correspondence and so on. Due to their importance, more and more scholars have published papers about this topic during the past years. However, although scholars make a great contribution to the theoretical analysis of business English translation, there still lack systematic studies.

2.1 Research at home and abroad

A report shows us that from all over the world, more than 1.6 billion people use English as their first or second language, and nearly 80% of them use business English during their daily life (Liu Fagong 2000). Besides St John (1996) thought, since 1990s, business English has become one of the most significant branches of English for specific purposes. In this case, more and more experts have taken part in the research of business English translation, and with the growth of Chinese economy, many foreign scholars also pay more attention to China.

Through doing surveys, it has been found that due to the influence of different cultural background, the Chinese translation often loses some effective information and makes people confused. Some scholars raised up some theories to help translators. Nida (1964) came up with “formal equivalence” and “dynamic equivalence”, and as time goes on, scholars add some other ideas and sum up these theories as “functional equivalence”. Besides, there are also many other famous scholars who majored in translation of business English devoted themselves to it, such as, Katharina Reiss, Hans Vermeer and Christiane Nord. They raised up and developed the theory of skopos, which highlights the purpose and aim of the translation activity (Liu Yanmei 2012).

In the past decades, more and more universities evaluate highly of business English, and more than 300 colleges start the course. And with the rapid development of Chinese economy, courses of business English have started more and more minute branches (Xu Jun 2008: 127). In addition, Chinese scholars summarize their own translated standard -- Dynamic Message Equivalence, which involves in equivalence of semantic message of source text and target text, Equivalence of stylistic message of source text and target text, equivalence of cultural message of source text and target text, and equivalence of business effect of source text and target text (Weng Fengxiang 2013).

Among scholars who pay much attention to translation of business English terms, most of them emphasize the methods and principles of business translation, and the rest of them analyze the Chinese translation from the aspect of purpose. However, be limited in the background of the researches and environment of commerce, business English translation requires higher quality, which cannot be satisfied by the existing condition. Therefore, this thesis suggests an integration of theory and practice so as to optimize the skill of translation, and avoid the loss of business information.

2.2 Characteristics of business English terms

2.2.1 Specialty

Term is a word or expression with a particular meaning, especially one that is used for a specific subject or type of language. And as mentioned above, business English includes many branches, and each part has its own professional terms. For instance, in international transport area, it has “Charter party” for “租船合同” and “Charterer” for “租船人”. In financial area, there are “floating exchange rate” for “浮动汇率” and “financial and operating ratios” for “财务与经营比”. In economic area, there are “corporate charter” for “公司章程” and “capital goods” for “资本货物”.

2.2.2 Conciseness

The most prominent characteristic of business English is conciseness because too much information would make the text ambiguous and vague. However, it is the conciseness that demands less words to express meanings of terms and avoids loss of

The original information, rather than present less information (Liu Cong_2012). Please look at the following example:

Example 1:

All disputes in connection with this Contract or arising in the execution thereof shall be settled amicably by negotiation.

跟本合同相关的所有争议或者在执行本合同中引起的所有争议都应通过友好协商来解决。(Yang Qian 2012)

This clause does not have any redundant words.

Apart from using less words to express themselves, business English terms always use acronyms to make texts clear. In fact, acronyms also spread information in a fast speed so that they help commercial staffs improve work efficiency. For instance, “D/P” is “documents against payment”, “B2B” is “Business to Business” and “AM” is “amendment”. Hence, acronym does help a lot unless translators cannot figure it out.

2.2.3 Polysemy

In the business English area, many English words can be used as normal literary words and are given new meanings as terms at the same time. Thus it can be seen, business English terms are polysemous. Only when translators know meanings of terms very well can they complete a perfect rendering.

Example 2:

Bank discounts are an example of a bank charge that is made for payment of a note at some point prior to maturation.

银行贴现是银行手续费的一种，指在票据到期前银行要收取的费用。

However, for “discount”, its original meaning is “折扣”, while in this sentence, “discount” is translated into “贴现”. And “maturation” has its particular meaning in financial English area, which expresses “到期”, but its original meaning is “成熟” (Liu Cong 2012).

Many English words have disparate meanings in different cases, translators have to translate it clearly.

2.2.4 Normalization

Business texts are very formal, so many normative words always appear in this kind of text. When someone is reading business text, he or she could find that the text uses unfamiliar words instead of daily words, such as this sentence,

Example 3:

The Agreement shall automatically terminate upon the bankruptcy or insolvency of either of the parties hereto (Liu Cong 2012).

It would use the word “terminate” rather than “end” to express the meaning, because the terminate is more standard.

The business texts also use complicated prepositional phrase to substitute for colloquial one.

Example 4:

Cash in advance ties up the buyer' s capital prior to receipt of the goods or services.

It uses “prior” to displace “before” (Liu Cong 2012).

In addition, the normalization of business text is reflected in polite formula, too. It prefers to use euphemistic and hearty words to show its manners to others. Such as using “Any courtesy you may extend to our trade delegation will be highly appreciated.” to express their appreciation.

2.3 Criteria for E-C Business Terms Translation

As mentioned before, translation of business English is more difficult than common English. Therefore, in order to improve quality of translation, translators not only need to be acquainted with corresponding translation skills, but also master professional business skills (Liu Lihong 2012). For these reasons, E-C translation of business terms is raising more and more professors’ attention. However, due to the particularity of business English terms, different professors put forward different arguments. For example, Professor Liu Fagong (2002) said that business English translation should follow the criteria of “faithfulness”, “exactness” and “consistency” (Liu Fagong 2002: 67). Moreover, Ye Yulong (2007) thought that apart from “faithfulness” and “smoothness”, translated text should be “simon-pure”, which meant the text should present the characters of business English, show its specialty area and on basis of commercial circles’ idiomatic expression (Ye Yulong 2007: 67) The following part will summarize the criteria for of E-C translation of business terms.

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